A Bridge Too Old

The Montaqua Bridge that lies between Joliet and Rockvale is no more. The 91-year-old bridge was removed last week to make way for a wider structure. Carbon County Commissioner John Grewell said the old structure was “failing” and was only designed to take 8-ton loads. Today’s larger vehicles and the fear of it collapsing prompted the closure of it until further notice. Now with money coming from a TSEP grant a new and wider bridge, spanning 24 feet in width and coping with up to 20-ton weights, is expected to take its place by Dec. 19 this year. The overall cost is the project from removal to rebuilding will be $479,867.60. The contractor Anderson Construction from Great Falls sold the bridge to Howdy and Shelia Hildebrand of Joliet who spent the weekend cutting up the structure. The parts may be sent to a foundry later to be made into scrap metal.